


I've Been There

by impactEvents



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen, Ghouls, Trans Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 05:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3798256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impactEvents/pseuds/impactEvents
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trans guy Raul backstory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've Been There

It's not ladylike, they told him. It's not ladylike, but it's necessary. As if following it with a 'but' made him narrow his eyes in annoyance and suspicion any less.

He loaded the shotgun, and stood beside his father. Bandits didn't care much about manners, anyway.

 

The night the ranch burned down, he awoke to thick, dark grey smoke burning his lungs. He rolled over to Rafaela's side of the bed, covered the both of them with a sheet while he shook her awake. They escaped out the back, dodging through and behind haystacks and barns and cornfields until the air was clear again.

 

His skin'd been wrong since that night. Burned until it was as shiny as his _abuelo_ 's head, and peeling as the radiation sickness caught. His hair fell out in increasingly larger clumps. Two feet and ten years, gone.

Wasn't so bad, he decided, slipping the _vaquero_ costume on. He stood in front of a shattered display mirror admiring himself, making pistols with his fingers and pretending to hook cattle. Hadn't felt this good since he fixed his last car.

Rafaela loving it was a bonus.

 

When he finds the jumpsuit, he burns the remainder of the costume. Anything to help him pretend to forget, pretend he can leave the past behind. 

His body is so gaunt by now, his skin and features so scarred and marked, that no one looks twice between his face and the name tag. His voice isn't totally trashed, not like some ghouls', but it is deeper and scratchier, and adds another protective layer. This is the one positive thing ghoulification has brought him.

 

He can hear the commotion outside from his cell. Metal walls aren't as soundproof as you'd think, especially when machine guns are pointed directly at them.

 

“Who's Miguel?” the kid asks, pointing. 

His impatient facade fades a second, thinking that somehow, this punk can tell. The kid must see that, because they quickly backtrack, spinning their hands in front of them. They get it.

“I mean, I thought, aren't you Raul? The radio guy, right?”

“Raul Tejada. That's me, boss.”


End file.
